
/ 



TRACTS FOR THE TIMES. 



j> t 



To lie Soverelp People of tie MM States, 



ISTo. ±. 



The Government of the People. 



WILLIAM MACKEY, 



EDITOR. 



Know/edge is Power, and Political Knowledge is the Chief of Powers. 



^>"cr3XjissLE!X) BIT w". 2^Tj^o:^:Eir. 



ST. LOUIS, MO. 

pARRERAS ^ )V^H1TTY, fRINTERS, II3 J^INE gTRBET. 

1876. 



t- &n \ 



Entereii acreording to Act of Congress in the Yenr 1876, by 
in the office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



^^^ THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE. 



That the g(n'ernment of the United States is "a government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people," is a very frequent announce- 
ment, and is always received with applause. It must be in the interest of 
the people to ascertain whether the fact thus announced be so or not ; and 
should it appear that the sovereignty of the .people is more in name, than 
in fact, and that the sovereignty rightfully belongs to the people, then to 
ascertain, if possible, why the sovereignty is not as efficacious of good for 
the people as might be reasonably expected. 

The points then to be considered are simply three : 

1. Are the people entitled to govern? 

2. Do they govern ? 

3. If not, why not ? 

We might have been content with the read}- acceptance which the 
announcement of the government of the people has ever met with in this 
country, and furthermore, with the apparently conclusive authority of the 
Preamble to that Constitution which, with the laws enacted by Congress 
under it, forms the supreme lavv^ of this Republic. That Preamble should 
be well understood by the people, and it is as follows : 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote the general w^elfare and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and to our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America. 

This Preamble should be well studied by all who desire to become 
acquainted with the nature of the government of the United States, as it 
exhibits in a few lines not merely the special purposes of that government, 
but .j*,lso the avowed objects of all government of every form. The first 
object proposed in the Preamble is the formation of "a more perfect, 
union ; and fittingly, because the splendid justice on which that union was 
based would be, if faithfully adhered to, the best guai'antee of the five 
other objects contemplated, namely : justice generally, domestic tranquility 
security from invasion, the general weliare, and an enduring liberty. 



THE CONSTITUTION THE PEOPLE'S WORK. 

Thus, then, the government constituted for the above high and holy 
purposes was solemnly declared in the Preamble of the Constitution to be 
the work of the people. This should be understood to be strictly correct. 
The wise and able men that spent four months and three days in 
discussing and determining upon the provisions of the Constitution had 
been delegated for that special purpose by the people of the several States 
of the then Union, and it is a fundamental rule in law and human affairs, 
that " what men do by others they do by themselves." That is, that it is 
really their act, and they are responsible, and entitled to credit for the 
act, and that in this case, the production of the delegates was the people's 
act, more especially, as the Constitution was finally submitted to the 
people and received their ratification. The Constitution thus framed was 
no simple or commonplace document. A mighty work had to be accom- 
plished, and even with previous experience in the line, it toQk all the time 
and attention of the very able delegates to elaborate and complete that 
Constitution. Their efforts have been ever regarded as a triumphant 
success, and the Constitution has been pronounced by competent authority 
to be the greatest effort of human wisdom. 

It is well to see how this is. The Union was not formed by the Con- 
stitution. It was only made "more perfect" by the working of that instru- 
ment. It first became a fact in the war of the Eevolution, and was for- 
mally inaugurated in the Articles of Confederation, A. D. 1778. By the 
Articles it was agreed that the Union should be perpetual. The ratifica- 
tion of that Union is worth}^ of repetition as well for its form as substance, 
namely : 

"And whereas, it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to 
incline the hearts of the Legislatures, we respectively represent in 
Congress to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of 
Confederation and perpetual Union." And then the delegates fully ratified 
the articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, and pledged the faith 
of their respective States, that amongst other things, "the Union should 
be perpetual." 

GOD IN THE CONSTITUTION. 

The Union thus formed is that which subsists to-day^ made "more 
perfect," or, to use the words of the letter signed by George Washington 
presenting to Congress the Constitution when completed by the Conven- 
tion, "consolidated" by their labors. The Union so "consolidated" was 
attributed, in its origin, to an inspiration of the Deity, and as its increased 
perfection was the great purpose of the Constitution, it follows that a 
recognition of the favors thus conferred on this Republic is the very basis 
of the Constitution. If the pious people who have so frequently appealed 
to Congress on this subject, would only take the trouble to enquire what 
Union it was that was by the Constitution to be made "more perfect" and 
''consolidated," they would find it to be the then existent Union declared 
in its formation to be made at the Divine impulse. No other Union is 



mentioned in the Constitution, and the proposed improvement or consol- 
idation was to be effected not by extending its duration, for it was to be 
"perpetual," but by strengthening and enlarging the powers of the Federal 
Government. We thus endeavor, by research and reference, to put "God 
in the Constitution," in vindication of the founders of the Kepublic and of 
the work of the people. Going still further back, we meet with additional 
warrant for this view. The Declaration of Independence, the promulga- 
tion of which is celebrated this Centennial year, and which, as it ushered 
the Eepublic into existence, must be ever regarded as the foundation of 
the Constitution, has no less than four recognitions of the Deity. Thus 
in the introduction it asserts the right of the people to assume among the 
powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
nature and nature's God entitled them. The next paragraph proceeds? 
" We hold those truths are self-evident that all men are created equal ; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; 
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ;" and 
in the final paragraph, where the formal ^Declaration of Independence is 
made, the}", as representatives of the United States in Congress assembled 
appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of their 
intentions, and, finally, for support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance 
on the protection of Divine Providence, they mutually pledge to each 
other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. In truth, the 
three documents, to which we have referred, form the true Constitution 
of the United States, and no one can have a complete view of that, one 
of the most important facts in history, without taking the three in 
connection. They may be said to form the title deeds of the Eepublic. 

THE UNION IS PEACE. 

We may venture, too, to add, that there is considerable ground for 
believing that it was no rash presumption on the part of the founders of 
the Eepublic to believe that in the formation of the Union they were 
preceding under Divine auspices, inasmuch as in the consolidation of 
that Union, they were led to the greatest and most beneficent discovery 
in political science. That was the combination of a Federal Government, 
furnished with ample powers and full controll over the resources of the 
country for defensive purposes, with the self-government of the several 
States, in full security from all extraneous interference from any quarter. 
Under a provision of the Constitution each State is forbidden to wage 
war on any other State, or even against a foreign foe, unless invaded.. 
This alone is a powerful guarantee for peace, internal and external, 
and may be hoped to be viewed with a favorable eye by the "Prince of 
Peace." 

It is, however, a remarkable circumstance, that though men have 
chosen to be ruled by Kings, yet, that even in monarchies it is frequently 
assumed by those in authority^ especially in perilous undertakings, that 
they are acting at the instance, or with the authority of the people- 



6 

Louis Napoleon having been crushed in his rash enterprise against the 
Prussian Monarch, sought to palliate, if not justify his rashness by the 
cries of the Parisian mob. When the Sultan of Turkey was lately 
deposed, the midnight conspirators claimed that the dethronement was 
the act of the people. In England they speak familiarly of the people 
beino- the true source of all legitimate power, and of the Monarch being 
" the first servant of the people," yet the bulk of the people are so devoid 
of power, that the men by the sweat of whose brows the crops of England 
are universally raised, have, to use a phrase of Macaulay's, no more 
influence on the coui'se of legislation in Englsnd, than the swine in 
the sty. 

The courae of human experience being, that, whether willingly or 
unwillingl}'-, the people, the mass of the population, have been very 
generally excluded from any direct influence on government, and it being, 
on the other hand, in this Republic, the legal right of the people to control 
the opovernment, it becomes proper to see whether this power in the mass 
of the people be, or not, inconsistent with the rights as well as the interests 
of what may be called the superior classes of the people, the wealthier, 
the more highly educated. 

Upon this important inquiry it is very satisfactory to be able to 
arrive at the conclusion that the award of power, under the Constitution 
to the mass of the people, is perfectly consistent with the rights and 
interests of all the people. What, it may be asked^ is the reason for this 
conclusion ? It is, that of all classes in the community, it is more especially 
the interest of the humbler classes to secure good and prudent government, 
and that for the want of such government, they will be the principal 
sufferers. 

The rich, those having abundant means, though they may have to 
sustain losses, are yet secured against the extremity of wanti There is 
little likelihood of their being subject to the winter's cold, or the torrents 
of rain, unprotected. It is not of them that Lear, in his agony, would say, 

"Poor, naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, 

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, 

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides. 

Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you 

From seasons such as these ?" 

The genius of Shakspeare framed this interrogatory, but attempted no 
solution of the difficulty. He merely made appeal in another quarter, 
thus : 

"Take physic pomp, 

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, 

That thou mayest shake the supeiflux to them, 

And show the heavens more just." 

What Shakspeare wrote of was a convulsion of nature ; but hurricanes 
that arise from political causes -tnay be as baleful visitations to humanity 
as could be any natniral. And surely h is the duty of the community, and 



especially the portion of it that is possessed of power, to guard against 
tornadoes whether natural or political. The people fortunately have 
ample power in this Kepublic, if they choose to use i^ to protect them- 
selves or as we have shown, the great bulk of them must be the chief 
sufferers. The interest, the motive to ward off those political mischiefs, 
is, then, precisely with the people that have the power. 

THE PEOPLE ARMED WITH POWER OF SELF-PROTECTION, YET SUFFER. 

Now, this is a point that merits ample consideration. It is a grand 
feature in the Constitution of this Kepublic, that those most liable to 
political calamities are under it armed with powers of self-protection. 
Surely one would say, a community so circumstanced must be ever safe 
and prosperous. The instinct of self-preservation affords abundant 
guarantee for that. 

HARD TIMES — THE WAR — THE CURRENCY. 

Let us test this by facts. The people of this country are now suf- 
fering much distress. The industry of the country is paralyzed, and thous- 
ands of stalwart men may be said to lack bread. What is the cause, it 
may be asked, of this distressing state of affairs ? — no one will venture to 
say that the cause is natural. It is not plagues or pestilences, or short 
harvests or excessive population that have caused the distress. It must 
be admitted that the remote cause of the mischief was the war that for five 
successive years spread destruction and desolation throughout the land, 
and finally left the people weighed down with a load of debt of unprece- 
dented dimensons, such as was never before incurred by any people or 
nation within a period often, aye, twenty times the duration. The losses 
of property and destructio:* of valuable life in the war, together with tax- 
ation necessarily imposed, in order to reduce the debt, and pay the heavy 
interest accruing on that debt, have very much impoverished the people. 
But the crowning calamity inflicted on the people has arisen from the 
persistent efforts made by persons high in authority, and of great influ- 
ence, by depreciation and ribaldiy, to lower the character of tlie currency 
which was to the nation the legacy of the war, and further, from their 
having taken up at an annual expense of many millions, and put out of 
sight a very large proportion of that currency. 

As we moan shortly to return to this very important subject of the 
currency, it will suffice now to say that nearly three years since, the 
eontractionist tricks previously played with the currency led to the panic 

that shock to, that prostration of public confidence, from which there 

has been no recovery since. There may have been causes concurring with 
the contraction of the currency in producing the panic, such as over-trading, 
over-production, excessive railway speculation, and so on. But these 
alone would have spent their force in all probability within three months 
or less, and the commercial wcrld uneml:arra8sed with the currency dis- 
turbance, would have moved on as if they had never been heard of. 



8 

The war, attd the practices of those in authority on the national cur- 
rency, being presented to the popular mind as the great and indisputable 
causes of the disastrous state of things that now notoriously exists in this 
great repubublic, it must be a proper question to put to the suffering 
people, whose government that of the Republic is said to be, what they 
had to say to those two most prolific sources of evil, the promotion of that 
war, and the tampering with the national currenc3^ 

ABSTENTION OF THE PEOPLE. 

With the promotion of the civil war, it is indisputable that the 
people had little, if anything to do. They no doubt were slow to lend 
themselves to the hunting down and return of escaped slaves to their 
masters. The provisions of the Constitution for that purpose became 
literally incapable of execution. But, they indited no Uncle Tom's 
Cabin, nor did they invent the doctrine of secession. Both those 
incitements to mischief originated with the highly cultured classes, 
persons of excitable temperament, and vast imaginative genius. But 
whoever danced, the people had to pay the piper, in havoc and dis" 
truction, in torrents of blood, in huge expenditure. 

Still the question arises, would the result have been beneficially 
affected, had the people exercised control when the secession movement 
first presented itself in form. We may reasonably conclude that the 
people imbued with a fair portion of political knowledge, uninfected 
with the fanaticism of abolition on the one hand, unembarrassed by the 
exalted notions of the slave holder, or the mysteries of secession on the 
other, would take a common sense view of the matter, and speedily 
signify that as the provision for the return of escaped slaves was not 
being executed, full compensation in money should be made, and that 
the only road to abolition could be through full compensation, according 
to the precedent set by the Government from which the United States had 
the fatal gift of slavery, but that at all events the Union should be 
maintained. 

A different course was adopted. The Southern people were scared 
with the loud talk of abolition, when no abolition was seriously meant. 
And then again there was held out the lure to the South of a constructive 
interpolation, in the Constitution, of the right of a peaceable secession 
of the Slave States from the Union. Thus came the war, and the 
innocent people have been and are now writhing under its inflictions, and 
thus atoning for their "innocence," or perhaps more properly speaking 
for their indolence, such as must have actuated the Jews when they 
clamored for a king, against the behests of the Almighty. 

That the hands of the people are clear of guilt in relation to the 
war, is pretty plain ; but that they had neither act or part, in bringing 
about the present muddle in the currency with all its attendant evils is 
beyond all question. The people are not in the slightest degree re- 
ponsible for the collapse of prices, and the oonsequent shock to public 



confidence ; the stagnation of business, the lamentable fact that hungiy 
thousands raise the cry for bread, or that immigration dwindles or 
disappears. The non-intervention of the people on the currency question 
admits of a ready explanation. Individuals among the people having 
generally very moderate amounts on hand, trouble themselves but little 
about what are called the movements in the money market. The causes 
of these movements being altogether out of their view, they feel disposed 
to regard the whole thing as a mystery beyond their comprehension. 
They observe that many portly volumes are published on the question ; 
that angry controversies have long existed on the subject, with many 
high authorities on either side. They know that a couple of years since^ 
Congi-ess after lengthy debating adopted a measure which was expected 
to give commercial relief, and that President Grant vetoed that bill. 
They know that in the following session a compromise measure waa 
enacted having for one object, what is called the resumption of caeh 
payments, and that quite recently a bill passed the House of 
Eepresentatives for the repeal of so much of the act as fixed a time for 
resumption. Is it a wonder then, that where there is such a conflict of 
authority, that the men of the people shrink from grappling with such 
a difficulty. As well might it be expected, where rival doctors contend 
for the excellency of their respective Systems, by the bed side of a dying 
patient, that the sufferer could interpose and settle the dispute. 

The difficulties of the currency question are great, yet, as the people 
-are most interested in securing a speedy settlement of it, and as they are, 
not merely not "dying," but furnished with ample power to secure that 
settlement, we purpose, at no distant day, to lay before them such views 
of the matter as, we hope, with a little patient thinking, will enable them. 
to arrive at a prompt conclusion. We may add, too, that our reason for 
appealing to the ti'ibunal of the people is, that we may there expect the 
adjudication of common sense, secure from the imputation of any interest 
other than that of the welfare of the entire people. 

We lay particular stress on that word "interest." Its import well 
deserves the people's best attention. It influences the human mind 
strongly for good or for evil. Very many things conduce thus to affect 
men's judgment. 

LORD BACOK'S CAREER. 

Lord Bacon, described by some as the father of modern philosophy, 
but who undoubtedly was a man of gi-eat learning and great sagacity, 
warns the searchers after truth, the laborers in the acquisition of knowl- 
edge, to be on their guard against the idols of the tribe, the den, the 
market and the theatre, meaning, thereby, the prejudices arising frum the 
general nature of man and his assoeiations,the particular nature of individual 
man^ communications or words, and lastly, false theories, false philosophies 
and the perverted laws of demonstration. All these are abundant sources 
of error, and those who seek the truth canot be too much on their guard 
against them^ But there are two false lights which Bacon does not 



10 

expressly name, and whose illusions were too'strong even for the wisdom 
of Bacon, which seem most proper to be brought under the attention of 
the people^ namely, ambition and the charm of money. By these, Bacon 
fell. He, Lord Chancellor of England, was not only fired by the lust of 
power, but he actually sold justice for bribes. He was not only hurled 
from his pride of place by the award of his peers, but he earned from the • 
poet the enduring description of 

"The brightest, wisest, meanest of mankind." 
There is no reason for supposing that either of those formidable 
passions, thirst of gold and lust of power, has lost its vitality. They 
still, in addition to other sources of mischief, dominate among men, and it 
may be safely asserted, they sit enthroned in many hearts in this great 
Kepublic. These passions may be expected to develope in candidatures for 
high and lucrative office, for membership of Congress, Senatorshipp, Pres- 
identships. There are happily thousands of unselfish, patriotic persons 
who are free from such influences, and whose services would be of 
priceless value to the public. The difficulty is' to single them out from 
the mass of the less worthy. Let it not be supposed that we, in this 
design to pass any general censure on ambition, that affection of noble 
minds, or even on the love of gain, which is akin to prudence and thrift. 
But as the persons who are under the influence of these passions are liable 
to be carried beyond the sti-ict line of propriety, we desire for warning's 
sake to note the fact. 

THE JURY BOX. 

For a further illustration, we refer to the experience in practical life 
of the careful exclusion from the jury-box of all persons whose opinions 
might have been forhicd on the case to be tried under the influences we 
have named, or an}- other. It is in this point of view that the government 
of the people appears in its true light and fullest advantage, as being the 
government of those who, from their multitude^ must be necessarily 
unaffected by the disturbing influences of which we have spoken abo^ e, 
and who are for the same reason identified in interest with the entire 
people. If then, in the comparatively petty cases that oi-dinarily engage 
the attention of juries, it is right in order to secure an honest and just 
verdict to exclude persons who may be under prepossessions or undue 
influence, how much more necessary is it in these mighty questions that 
come before the people for adjudication, that the people should be on their 
guard against the wiles and artifices of interested parties, factions, leaders 
of factions, partizans ; all candidates for office, high or low, are to be listened 
to attentively, but with a certain amount of distrust. They may propose 
what is just and right, or with the best possible intentions may be urging 
what is flagrantly erroneous. Persons of the partizan class are all plainly 
tinder the influence of prejudice and prepossessions. Candidates and their 
adherents are apt too, to be under the sway of those terrible influences 
that mastered the mighty mind of Bacon — ambition and avarice. The 



11 

professions of this class should, therefore, he received respectfully, but 
with caution, nay, distrust. Of course, previous and long experience of 
individuals will have their due weight. 

THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRES HELP. 

The Constitution, having, as we have shown, conferred numerous 
advantages on the people, not the least of which must be regarded as the 
pi-obable bestowal on most able-bodied men of an addition to their lives of six 
years of usefulness on the avei*age, which are now being ruthlessly 
abstracted from the lives of their fellow-men in Europe, and sacrificed on 
the altars of the war demon. It too gives to the people ample means and 
abundant opportunity to protect themselves and the People at large 
against the mismanagement and malpractices of those in power, as well as 
from the pitfalls of individual ambition and avarice. The vastness of the 
favor thus conferred can be best estimated by considering that the great 
bulk of th^human race are now, and have been, long writhing under the 
hooves of despotism, or of oligarchical oppression. 

But this admirable Constitution will not work of itself. It requires 
help; it requires care and attention. The most perfectly constructed 
steam-engine that ever was set on rail needs intelligent direction and 
control, or else it becomes a fixture, or an instrument of destruction. In. 
truth, it seems to be an indubitable fact, that the more highly wrought, 
the more ingenious the contrivances of men are, the more they stand in 
need of skilled attention. This is the lesson taught by the experience 
that has been had of the great iron-clads that England has been lately 
sending forth in order to maintain her empii*e of the seas. So ruinous have 
been some of the accidents that have befallen them, from want of skill or 
care in their direction, that men have doubted whether in case of an 
engagement, those gi-eat ships would be more dangerous to their own 
people or the foe. The Constitution of the United States i" no simple or 
comraftnplace document. From the difficult, and previously deemed 
impossible combination it effected — that of the Union with state rights, it 
necessarily became complex in its provisions. Its construction gave rise 
to the long controversy as to the right of secession, which, it would seem, 
is not yet ended, and as to which we may have a few words to offer: 

By reason of this very matter, the English philosopher, Huxley, has 
been recently reported in the papers as having expressed a doubt of the 
continuance of the Union for another century. If Mr. Huxley happened 
to have as much faith in the benign Being to whom, we have shown, the 
founders of the Republic appealed in their Declaration of Independence, 
and in the formation of the Union, it is probable he would not have 
expressed the doubt. But the Constitution and the Union require in their 
workings all the assistance that the intelligence, integrity and patriotim 
of the people individually and in the aggregate can bestow. The measure 
of the i*equired intelligence may be stated to be, the general diffusion 
among the people of a knowledge, the more complete the better, of the 



12 

leading features and purport of the Union and the Constitution ; also of 
the leading publie questions of the day that affect national interesta? 
together with, of course, all State and municipal matters of consequence. 
Thus, and thus only can the men of the people give effectual aid to 
the working of the constitution, in the election of reliable and capable 
TOen to representative positions in Congress, or the State Legislatures, o^* 
to places on the Judicial Bench, or other places of trust or consequence, 
and in noticing, as far as convenient, the conduct of the selected persons 
in the several offices. Manifestly too much attention cannot be paid to 
the selection of proper persons for ofRco, especially for the administration 
of justice, in which, probably, the most concerned are the humbler classes 
of society; and there can be little doubt, the weaknesses by which Bacon 
ell have their influence at this side of the Atlantic as well as the other, 
and if such failings are allowed to have play, they give the advantage 
altogether to those who are rich enough to bribe. 

SCALE OF ENGLISH AND ATHENIAN INTELLIGENCE, 

On the subject of the intelligent and efficient exercise by the people 
of the great powere with which they are invested, it may be instructive 
to refer briefly to the career and circumstances of the renowned city of 
Athens. The Athenians were the most intellectual people of all antiquity. 
They were foremost in oratory, in philosophy and mental culture. A 
public writer has recently estimated that the average Athenian was as 
inuc|i superior to the average Englishman, as the average Englishman is 
superior to the average Negro. The political institutions of such a people 
are well worthj^ of notice. In Athens, the people were sovereign. Lord 
Lytton, (Bulwer) in his "Athens ; its Ase and fall," describes its govern- 
ment as "an unmitigated democracy." The people there exercised all 
sovereign powers in person. They, in full assembly, determined on all 
questions of peace and war. It was before that assembly that Demosthenes^ 
the greatest of orators, delivered those famous orations called the 
'' Philipics," and which have given since a name to the oratory that is at 
once vehement and convincing. The people, we repeat, heard in person 
those great efforts of reason and eloquence, together with the discourses 
of the rival orators, and decided upon their comparative worth and the 
great question in issue. With such training as that, we cannot wonder 
at the high estimate that has been formed of the Athenian intellect, or 
that they discovered that there was a God entitled to their worship, other 
than the Pagan divinities, and to whom they devoted an altar as the 
" Unknown God," but whom St. Paul told them was the God he preaohed. 

ATHENS AND THE UNITED STATES. 

What, then is the difference between the democracy of Athens and 
the people of the United States ? The government of the latter is undoubt- 
edly as "unmitigated" a democracy as that of Athens, and also on a vastly 
more extensive scale. It is founded, too, on an infinitely juster principle. 
The democracy of Athens was confined to the walls of Athens. Her 



13 

•dependencies and tributaries were governed from Athens, and did not 
participate in her democratic government. On the contrary, Ihe United 
States recognizes the perfect equality of the constituent States, the least 
with the greatest, the newest with the oldest, and provides i^ubstaptially 
for the self-government of even the Territories, until their population shall 
attain such dimensions as will entitle them respectively to be admitted as 
States. This great lesson in political justice the United States alone gives 
to the Nations. ' ' . > . 

But the people ot the United States do not administer the government 
or disjiose of the great questions of war or peace in person. No orations 
are addressed to them such as Philip declared, '"he feared more than all 
the fleets and armies of the Athenians." The extent of the Republic 
prevents that. For that reason the people of the United States must 
commit the transaction of their public business to a President, a Congress, 
State Legislatures, &c. In order to give the world that greatest of lessons 
in political justice which we have described, people must deny themselves 
the pleasure and advantage of listening to and pronouncing upon oratory 
such as Demosthenes uttered. 

POLITICAL SELF-EDUCATION. 

This latter is a disadvantage, but it is more than countervailed by 
that consciousness with which each American heart ought to be impressed, 
that whilst their glorious Eepublic gives to its own people the opportunity 
of realizing all the happiness that can be known on earth, it is working 
relief, directly and indirectly, even to the downtrodden among the nations, 
and pronouncing words of warning to their tyrants. This consciousness, 
and their own intelligence, together with the care for their own interests, 
should prompt the people of the United States to devote a certain portion 
of their time, like to that which the Athenians gave to the hearing of 
Demosthenes and the other orators, to the acquisition of so much political 
knowledge as will enable them to discharge the duty of citizens in selecting 
fit men for office, and noting their conduct while in office. As to this self 
education' of the people, here suggested, it might suffice to siy, that it in 
the main, must be, not only the work of the people themselves, but also 
one continued from day to day. Politics necessarily relate to the events 
of the present time, and these are principally to be dealt with. The 
education of a citizen cannot, therefore, be given in schools and colleges, 
though some of the elements may. 

As the groundwork of his political education, the citizen should make 
himself acquainted with the outlines, general purport, and effect of the 
Constitution, and as much of the history of the country and its institutions 
as he conveniently can. Next after the knowledge of his religion, and 
that belonging to his occupation in life, we can confidently assert, the most 
profitable information he can acquire, will be that which will enable him 
to discnarge his duty, independantly and efficiently, as a loyal citizen of 
the Republic. The first step to the acquisition by the citizen, of a com- 



14 

petent portion of political knowledge, is to feel and be thoroughly conscious 
of the want of it. When once the citizen has attained the consciousness 
of the dignity, amongst the sons of men of his position as a citizen of the 
Uni4ed States, together with its responsibilities, and great opportunities^ 
half his work will be done ; knowledge will stream in on all sides. He 
should also favor the diffusion amongst the people of the much needed 
sound political information. 

The indefinite extension of this admirable system must necessarily 
be a mighty boon to humanity so frequently scourged by wars and their 
dread concomitants, devastation, famine and slaughter. But how is' this 
blessed extension to be secured? Simply by the self-government of the 
several Stales being sacredly preserved and securely guarded by the 
vigilant outlook and abundant powers of the central Government. 

I POLITICAL JUSTICE. 

The extension of the United States since the adoption of the 
Constitution has been marvelous. There has not been such a growth of 
population, of States, of productive power combined with the largest 
measure of individual liberty, in the history of the world. A hundred 
years ago, Mr. Bancroft informs us, the population, of the thirteen 
original States, white and colored, was just two millions, six hundred 
thousand ; it is now over forty millions. What is the explanation of the 
miracle ? It is, that not only did the original two millions and a half 
increase and multiply, but men were drawn hither from other lands, at- 
tracted as well by the generous welcome to participate in the boundless 
resources of the country, accorded to foreigners, as charmed by the system 
of political justice that held sway here. The further explanation is, that 
of the thirty-seven or thirty-eight States of the Union, old and new, large 
and small, all under the Constitution were treated alike, and each 
guaranteed a republican form of self-government. 

MILITARISM MINIMISED AND MAN's LIFE ENLARGED. 

Immigrants too, from European Co an tries, must be struck with the 
absence from American Cities of a class with which their eyes at least 
h^d been very familiar at home, namely, the military class — a class, with 
which few escaped being more intimately acquainted either personally, 
or through near relations. The immigrants should know too, that the 
contrast alluded to guaran lees to the able-bodied man in America for 
profitable employment, at least half a dozen years of the best part of his 
life, which should be spent elsewhere, either in learning to bear arms, in 
bearing arms, or in being prepared to answer the call to bear arms. The 
explanation is, that whilst the European Nations, with scarcely an ex- 
ception, are organized for war, the Fedei-al Union of America, is 
specifically an organization for peace. True, the terrible conscription is 
confined to Continental Europe ; as yet it only impends over England. 



We le^ve our readers to determine whether to the predilection for 
peace inculcated by the Federal Institutions of the Country, or the 
elevating ennobling influence of Eepublican freedom, the woi'ld is in- 
debted for the grandest example of generosity and magnanimity, of which 
any age or nation gives record, that with which the late calamitous civil 
war was ended, and it seems hoped to be forgotten. Never had there 
been to the demon of war, within a like period so huge a sacrifice of 
blood and treasure. Yet at the end, where was tho '^Va Victics ? " (woe 
to the vanquished) the executions^ the dungeons, the confiscations with 
which all civil wars had been previously ended ? Yes, where were they ? 
Why, not even Jefferson Davis was prosecuted. How grandly does the 
instantaneous amnesty, accorded by free America, contrast with the refusal 
by proud and pretentious England to set free from her dungeons the ten 
years incarcerated Fenians. 

Such is the all important explanation of the wondrous growth of the 
United States ; and it is also valuable in refuting an erroneous opinion 
that has been held for thousands of years. It was that republican 
institutions were incompatible with extended dominion; that Eepublic- 
anism should be confined to, say, a single citj', as Athens or Eome — Eome 
was all conquering^ and b}^ a fine j)olitical instinct conceded to her 
conquests, under her protection and for her profit a certain amount ot 
self-government. Thus we see in Judea, Herod figuring as a king, but 
under the control of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. But within 
the dominions of Rome, Republicanism was confined to Rome. 

Ln the United States Republican Freedom is not confined to the seat 
of Empire, but is diffused with perfect impartiality, through her wide 
limits^ in the only way it could with security be diffused, by confiding 
the matter under the constitution to the hearts and hands of the people 
of the several States. So the mighty paradox is solved, that whereas it was 
heretofore universally believed that the blessings of Republican Govern- 
ment should necessarilj' be confined to narrow limits, it has now been 
demonstrated beyond question, that under the system devised by the 
framers of the Constitution, one paramount Republic with its constituent 
Republics may be made to embrace Continents. In fact, the American 
Republic in its present state affords conclusive evidence that^ it, of all 
earthly goveruments can hold, by thq surest means, namely, willing 
subjection, the widest of territories, and the vastest population. It was 
then no mere flight of fancy for the enthusiastic Frenchmen to propose 
the erection at New York of the Centennial Monument, symbolisino- 
American liberty giving light to the nations— that American liberty to 
which their own glorious ancestors contributed so much, to give a 
vigorous existence. ; 

The Legal title of the people under the Copstitution to control th,e. 
government of the United States being indisputable, and that govern- 
ment having been on the whole a great success, it must be interesting as 
well as profitable to consider why so excellent a form of government is 



16 

so much of a novelty. The great mass of mankind has ever preferred 
kingly rule. Eepublics have been comparatively few, and those of an 
aristocratical, oligarchical character. This Eepublic towers above all 
other Eepublics, ancient or modern, not only in extent of territory, and in 
magnitude of population, but also in giving full play to the democratic 
principle, that is, in the powers of government being placed under the 
control of the people. The preference even of the " chosen" people of the 
Jews for kingly rule is shown under the most remarkable circumstances 
in the Old Testament. 

THE JEWS AND KINGLY RULE. ' 

The nation of the Jews had after the death of Moses been ruled by 
■wise and discreet men called Judges, of whom Sajauel was the last. He 
was old and appointed his sons to be judges; but they abused their 
authority^ ^' took bribes and perverted justice." Then the ancients of 
Israel being assembled^ came to Samuel and said to him : ""Thou art old, 
thy sons walk not in thy ways. Make us a king to judge us^ as all nations 
have." This was displeasing to Samuel, and he prayed to the Lord. And 
the Lord said to Samuel : "■ Hearken to the people in all that they say to 
thee, for they have not rejected thee, but Me^ tl\^t I should not reign over 
them." "But yet testify and tell them of the right of the king that ehail 
reign ovbr them." Then Samuel told them the words of the Lord, and 
enumerated very fully the inflictions they should endure from their king, 
namely, *' He will take your pons and make them his horsemen^ and 
runnino; footmen to run before his chariots, and his tribunes and centui*- 
ions, and to plough his fields, and reap his corn, and make him arms and 
chariots ; and your daughters he will take to be his cooks and bakers. 
After manj^ more specifications, all which can be seen in 1 Kings, chap. 
8, it concludes, "Your flocks also he will tithe, and you shall be his 
servants." They were further warned that "they would cry out from the 
face of the king, but the Lord will not hear you in that day, because you 
desired unto yourselves a king." Notwithstanding^ however, those terrible 
cautions, the people said, "Naj^, but there shall be a king over us. We also 
will be like all nations; our king shall judge us_, and shall go but before 
us and fight our battles for us. And Samuel after again consulting the 
Lord, was told to hearken to the people's voice, and make them a king. 
This he did by selecting Saul, who is described as a goodly man, appearing 
from his shoulders and upward above all the people. 

On the whole, it is not difficult to understand why the Jews wanted a 
king. They wanted some one to fight their battles, and do their thinking 
for them, and so far as possible, relieve them of all responsibility. It may 
be a question, whether the same disi^osition to shirk difficulties and place 
them on kingly shoulders has not ever since largely actuated peoples, and 
brought many of them to ruin. It is a received maxim, " that eternal 
vigilance is the price of liberty." It may plainly be added that it is also 
the price of good and prudent government^ and even of material pros- 
perity. 



17 

Independent thinking in polities is much to be desired. Lord Bacon^ 
and indeed all who have written seriously on the subject, have warned all 
searchers after truth against the fallacies of the tribe, the market, the 
theatre; that is, the sect, the party, the faction. The right of private 
judgment in politics is the law of this republic, and should be the practice 
of every citizen. Otherwise, multitudes of citizens will be found influ- 
enced by cliques and parties, and acting against their own andthe public 
interests. ''Party has been defined to be the madness of many for the 
gain of a few." The definition may be well relied on as correct, where the 
many choose to be the slaves of party. But if the many be individually 
instructed and self-dependent, they can make party an instrument of 
usefulness. 

An institution enjoyed by Americans, and which the Athenians, if 
they had it, would have much relished, as St. Paul says, they were fond of 
hearing new things, is the newspaper. This publication is generally 
furnished with matter for all sorts of readers — matter merely trifling, 
amusing or sensational, as well as information as to public affairs. The 
citizen anxious to do his duty under the Constitution, will, of course, 
confine his attention to practical matters, and avoid merel}^ '• kill time 
reading." He will pay but little attention to the idle and barren specula- 
tions of the so-called "scientists " of the Huxly and Darwin school, on 
forsooth, "Evolution, the age of the world, and the origin of the species," 
matters just as much beyond our knowledge as our influence. The utility 
of sueh inquiries is about on a par with that of the machine invented by 
the philosopher, told of by Dean Swift, for " extracting sunbeams from 
cucumbers." 

Another institution, quite of the present day, that has been found 
.beneficial in diffusing information among the people, though in a compar- 
atively trivial matter, is the '• Spelling Bee." Its successful and pleasant 
working may suggest to patriotic citizens a convenient mode of imbuing 
the public mind with the spirit^ and principles of the Constitution, and 
enable them to form some estimate of the vast advantages that may be 
expected to arise from giving that Constitution full and fair play. If 
people can derive advantage from the workings of the Spelling Bee, how 
much more might they expect benefit from gatherings that would improve 
their acquaintance with the law and the Constitution. 

BULGARIAN HORRORS IN ENGLAND. 

We have now, however feebly and inadequately, whilst noting the 
beneficent working of the constitution and the exalted position assigned 
by it to the masses of the population, endeavoured to impress on the 
popular mind, that certain miscarriages that have taken place in the 
affairs of the rejiublic, occasioning much suffering to the people, might 
have been averted had the people paid more attention to, and striven 
more to make themselves acquainted with public affairs, and made due 
exercise of the powers with which they are invested. On this subject, a 



18 

lesson is offered by what is passing in England at this moment. In 
oligarchical England, the voice of public opinion is being vigorously 
raised in condemnation of the connivance of the government of the 
crafty Disraeli at the atrocities of the Turks in Bulgaria, those atrocities, 
which in all probability would have been buried in oblivon but for the 
active intervention of the American minister, who, without consulting 
Dsraeli gave them to the world. Those atrocities, we say, now reprobated 
in England, were quite of the class of diabolisms pei-petrared in Ireland 
by Cromwell, and which have been much approved of by the English 
Historians, Carlyle and Fronde. Again like atrocities were perpetrated 
by Warren Hastings in establishing English authority in India. Again 
in suppressing the Indian mutiny, it was deemed right to blow men into 
fragments, from the cannon mouth. Kemembering these things, it is 
well to hear thatthe English people are now indulging in some virtuous 
indignation at Turkish enormities. 

Whatever may. be the result, it is satisfactory to have the popular 
eye in England turned on the conduct of Statesmen, and the popular 
estimate given of the average Statecraft. It is a warning, if it were 
necessary, to the American people to place by no means boundless 
confidence in their governmental authorities, and that their attention to 
and intervention in public affairs can scarcely fail to be beneficial. To aid 
them in coming to a satisfactory conclusion we submit to them then 
following reflections : 

REFLECTIONS. 

The first is, whether they, the people North and South, are not and 
have not been for a considerable time, enduring very great calamities 
distinctly tracable to two notable events, viz : The civil war and the 
trouble in the currency ? 

The second is : whether, with the fomenting or promotion of either of 
those stupendous mischiefs, they, the people, had anything directly to do ; 
whether the mischiefs have not been the work of the cultured, the refined,the 
highly educated classes ; the statesmen, the financiers, the orators, and, 
we may add, the philosophers and the political economists. And conced- 
ing that those classes and individuals acted with the best possible intentions, 
and have suffered, many of them, fi-om the causes adove indicated, whether 
it can for a moment be pretended that their sufferings have been of the 
unmixed character of those with which the general mass of the population 
have been afflicted. 

Many of them, in the general scramble, have acquired wealth and 
power, position and place. Few of them have been reduced to abject 
povert}^, whilst we see that stalwart men of the people have been in many 
cases obliged to parade the streets in order to jjrocure bread for themselves 
and their starving families! 

The third consideration is, whether they the people, have not the 
constitutional right, by their votes at elections, to control the governments 
of the Union, and of the several States, and supposing that they did 



19 

exercise their right with respect to the civil war, and with respect to the 
currency, it is possible the consequences of their intervention could have 
been worse thrn those of their having permitted matters to have 
proceeded in the calamitous course now so much lamented ? 

Fourth, whether, when the people are doing well, any considerable 
section of the community can be suffering ? In other words, whether the 
well being of the mass of the people be not conclusive evidence that the 
nation is in a sound state. 

Fifth, whether it is not highly probable, that it would be much better 
for all parties, except perhaps certain fortunate individuals who succeeded 
in carrying off the prizes of life, if the common sense of the people had 
made itself felt, and their material interests more regarded in, those critical 
movements that led, and were pretty sure to lead to civil war ; and also 
in the dealings that have now, with such disastrous consequence, been 
going on for so many years with the National Currency ? 

Sixth, whether it is not the plain interest as well as the right of the 
people to take the path of duty, and prepare to fulfil the part assigned to 
tHem in the Republic and its government by the Constitution ; and whett 
hundreds of thousands of the people would promptly re-echo the glorious 
cry of '* Liberty or Death," and readily lay down their lives in the battle- 
field for the safety of the Republic, they ought not to be anxious to expend 
a few hours from time to time in the acquisition of such sound political 
knowledge as would save them from being made the dupes of party or of 
faction, and in fact the instruments of their own undoing, and also add 
enormously to their moral and material amendment? 

Seventh, whether the people, or even individuals of the people, thus 
advancing their own and the Nation's interest, might not reasonably expect 
thereby to raise the standard of political knowledge amongst all classes 
of the community, and so to impress on the leaders of party the necessity 
of selecting for public approval candidates of higher, qualifications than 
have been hitherto deemed requisite ; also whether the Frenchman's 
symbolical idea at New York of America, enlighening the nations, would 
not thus be realized, and by the force of a brilliant example, the cause of 
the Republic advanced in bloodless fields; and finally, whether the grand 
ideal of the Roman poet of the Augustan age, as expre^sed in Djj^den's 
vigorous lines, might not in progress of time be reached, and by .moral means 

alone? 

After in Hades, the future heroes of Rome were made to pass in 
review, the glorious career of the Republic was thus imii(ated : 
" Let others better mold the mass 
Of metal, and inform the breathing brass, 
And soften into flesh a marble face, 
Plead better at the bar, describe the skies, 
And when the stars descend, and when they ris-e; 
But Rome, 'tis thine, with awful sway, 
To rule mankind, and make the world obey. 
Disposing peace and war, thine own majestic waj; 



201 

To tame the proud, the fettered slave to free, 

These are imperial arts, and worthy thee." ^^ 

As an incitement to earnest thinking on the foregoing, we venture to 
refresh the popular memory with a brief summary of the results of the 
late civil war. The figures were agreed on by Horace Greely and 
Alexander Stephens, both Historians of that war from opposite sides. 
The expenditure in human life was one million of men that either died in 
battle, or from wounds and diseases incurred in the progress of the war. 
And eight thousand millions were expended in cash, or lost in devastation 
and waste of property. 




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